The rich Yankees get richer
The carousel has finally stopped.
A hectic MLB trade deadline (at least, for non-waiver deals) has seen several players change hands over the past few days. Handicappers are scrambling to assess the impact these changes will make. Here?s a look at the three teams who made the most out of their wheeling and dealing.
New York Yankees
And the rich get richer. The Yankees were able to pick up both outfielder Bobby Abreu and pitcher Cory Lidle from the Philadelphia Phillies. In return, Philly gets four minor leaguers, most notably shortstop C.J. Henry; as well, the Yankees will pay the rest of Abreu?s salary, which includes $15 million next season. That?s a drop in the bucket as far as the Yankees are concerned.
New York wrapped up Monday night?s action at 61-41, one game behind the Boston Red Sox in the American League East division, but with two games in hand. It?s reasonable to assume the Yanks would be ahead of Boston right now if it hadn?t been for the extended injury absences of Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui. New York has scored nearly one fewer run per game since Matsui went down in May. Abreu is a bit lower than usual at .861 OBP with just eight home runs, and Aaron Guiel has been a pleasant surprise at .905 OBP in 15 games wearing pinstripes, but Abreu is enough of an upgrade over Guiel to grab the Yankees an extra win or two over the rest of the regular season.
Lidle should do much the same. I?m not that big of a Lidle fan, especially with that 1.36 WHIP, but for some reason, he?s historically been a better pitcher in the second half of the season, and he is considerably better than the chaff (Shawn Chacon, Sidney Ponson and the like) New York has been trotting out at the back of the rotation. He should also be able to eat up a lot more innings. Suffice to say there?s a lot of fear and self-loathing in Boston right now after the Red Sox stayed quiet at the trade deadline.
Los Angeles Dodgers
You can?t beat the National League West. Once again, the division is a toss-up among several so-so teams, with the Dodgers still in contention despite being in last place at 50-55. They went out and stole third baseman Wilson Betemit from the Atlanta Braves for 3B Willy Aybar and reliever Danys Baez. Then the Dodgers snagged another skilled infielder in Julio Lugo from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for a pair of prospects, 3B Joel Guzman being the prize catch for the Rays. Lugo will step right in for Cesar Izturis, who was shipped to the Chicago Cubs for venerable pitcher Greg Maddux. L.A. even got a cool $2 million in cash from the Cubs.
This is a major trifecta for the Dodgers. Aybar and Guzman are both promising, but they seem to have hit a wall in their development. Baez is a relief pitcher; one of the golden rules in the seamhead community is that relievers are a dime a dozen, but these are desperate times in Atlanta. And Izturis is such a good defensive shortstop that people often forget how weak a hitter (.655 OPS) he really is. Remember Rey Ordonez? Precisely. Betemit will give Los Angeles some instant offense, which is more than welcome with Jeff Kent still out of commission.
What people really want to know is whether Maddux has anything left in the tank. The 40-year-old has four Cy Young awards to his credit, but he has cooled off considerably since going 5-0 in May with a 1.35 ERA. Maddux has lost much of what little zip he had on his fastball to begin with. As a groundball pitcher, that means more balls in play, and Chicago?s shoddy infield defense did Maddux no favors (thus the trade for Izturis). He should have a much better time at Chavez Ravine, where Lugo and Betemit will vacuum up a lot of those worm burners.
Texas Rangers
Last and also least in this case, the other crazy division out West is even tighter, with all four clubs in the hunt and the Rangers making the biggest splash by grabbing Carlos Lee from the Milwaukee Brewers last Friday in a six-player deal that included OF Kevin Mench. This is a fine trade for Texas, but it could have been parlayed into an even bigger one had Texas been able to package Hank Blalock and Brad Wilkerson for a pitching upgrade. It still might be enough to get them over the hump in a division where little happened at the deadline ? unless the commissioner?s office is slow in letting us know about any last-minute deals.
--Perry
BetWWTS.com
The carousel has finally stopped.
A hectic MLB trade deadline (at least, for non-waiver deals) has seen several players change hands over the past few days. Handicappers are scrambling to assess the impact these changes will make. Here?s a look at the three teams who made the most out of their wheeling and dealing.
New York Yankees
And the rich get richer. The Yankees were able to pick up both outfielder Bobby Abreu and pitcher Cory Lidle from the Philadelphia Phillies. In return, Philly gets four minor leaguers, most notably shortstop C.J. Henry; as well, the Yankees will pay the rest of Abreu?s salary, which includes $15 million next season. That?s a drop in the bucket as far as the Yankees are concerned.
New York wrapped up Monday night?s action at 61-41, one game behind the Boston Red Sox in the American League East division, but with two games in hand. It?s reasonable to assume the Yanks would be ahead of Boston right now if it hadn?t been for the extended injury absences of Gary Sheffield and Hideki Matsui. New York has scored nearly one fewer run per game since Matsui went down in May. Abreu is a bit lower than usual at .861 OBP with just eight home runs, and Aaron Guiel has been a pleasant surprise at .905 OBP in 15 games wearing pinstripes, but Abreu is enough of an upgrade over Guiel to grab the Yankees an extra win or two over the rest of the regular season.
Lidle should do much the same. I?m not that big of a Lidle fan, especially with that 1.36 WHIP, but for some reason, he?s historically been a better pitcher in the second half of the season, and he is considerably better than the chaff (Shawn Chacon, Sidney Ponson and the like) New York has been trotting out at the back of the rotation. He should also be able to eat up a lot more innings. Suffice to say there?s a lot of fear and self-loathing in Boston right now after the Red Sox stayed quiet at the trade deadline.
Los Angeles Dodgers
You can?t beat the National League West. Once again, the division is a toss-up among several so-so teams, with the Dodgers still in contention despite being in last place at 50-55. They went out and stole third baseman Wilson Betemit from the Atlanta Braves for 3B Willy Aybar and reliever Danys Baez. Then the Dodgers snagged another skilled infielder in Julio Lugo from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for a pair of prospects, 3B Joel Guzman being the prize catch for the Rays. Lugo will step right in for Cesar Izturis, who was shipped to the Chicago Cubs for venerable pitcher Greg Maddux. L.A. even got a cool $2 million in cash from the Cubs.
This is a major trifecta for the Dodgers. Aybar and Guzman are both promising, but they seem to have hit a wall in their development. Baez is a relief pitcher; one of the golden rules in the seamhead community is that relievers are a dime a dozen, but these are desperate times in Atlanta. And Izturis is such a good defensive shortstop that people often forget how weak a hitter (.655 OPS) he really is. Remember Rey Ordonez? Precisely. Betemit will give Los Angeles some instant offense, which is more than welcome with Jeff Kent still out of commission.
What people really want to know is whether Maddux has anything left in the tank. The 40-year-old has four Cy Young awards to his credit, but he has cooled off considerably since going 5-0 in May with a 1.35 ERA. Maddux has lost much of what little zip he had on his fastball to begin with. As a groundball pitcher, that means more balls in play, and Chicago?s shoddy infield defense did Maddux no favors (thus the trade for Izturis). He should have a much better time at Chavez Ravine, where Lugo and Betemit will vacuum up a lot of those worm burners.
Texas Rangers
Last and also least in this case, the other crazy division out West is even tighter, with all four clubs in the hunt and the Rangers making the biggest splash by grabbing Carlos Lee from the Milwaukee Brewers last Friday in a six-player deal that included OF Kevin Mench. This is a fine trade for Texas, but it could have been parlayed into an even bigger one had Texas been able to package Hank Blalock and Brad Wilkerson for a pitching upgrade. It still might be enough to get them over the hump in a division where little happened at the deadline ? unless the commissioner?s office is slow in letting us know about any last-minute deals.
--Perry
BetWWTS.com
